Gifted and Talented Pupils

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Gifted and Talented Pupils

• A Whole School Approach

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DFCS Definitions

• Those who excel in academic disciplines are
  termed gifted
• Those who excel in areas requiring visio-spatial
  skills or practical abilities are talented
  Art, Dance, Drama, Music, Sport.

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Who Are the Gifted and Talented Pupils?

• Word Association
• Capable Inquisitive Able
  Challenging
• Excited Learner Innovator Motivated
  Creative
• Leader Risk Taker Independent
  Potential
• Fast Learner Bright Accelerated Learner
  Insightful
• Achieve Outstanding Advanced
  Spontaneous
• There is a significant difference between a
  bright child and a gifted learner

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Recognising Gifted and Talented Pupils

• Place the comments into three piles.
• Gifted or Talented
• More Able
• Bright and Keen
• There are descriptions of both gifted and
  talented

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Some Characteristics of Gifted and Talented Pupils

• They learn more quickly
• They ask searching questions
• They challenge accepted theories
• They are autonomous learners
• Divergent thinkers they look for the unusual
• They often display a keen sense of humour
• They have a vivid imagination

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Models for Identification

• Talent Identification (Sport Music Drama Art
  Dance)
• CAT Scores 120 Average CAT or Non Verbal CAT
• Criteria established by subjects
• Brilliant Behaviours (Lannie Kanevsky, Canada)
• Percentages (Government 5-10)
• Peer comparison (2 to 3 years ahead of peers)
• School definition
• A combination of the above

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Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches

• QUANTITATIVE
• CATS SAT Results Exam Results Class Tests
• QUALITATIVE
• Characteristics (e.g. Curiosity Creativity
  Problem Solving)
• Ability Type (related to Gardners Multiple
  Intelligences)

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Gifted Underachievers (1)

• Bored and restless with flashes of brilliance or
  interest
• High quality oral work but poor written work
• Poor test results but asks searching questions
• Dislike of routine work often unfinished
• Creative interests or hobbies outside school but
  not reflected inside school

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Gifted Underachievers (2)

• Disruptive behaviour in some lessons but not in
  others where work is challenging
• Low self esteem or highly self critical
• Hostile to authority and able to articulate this
• High Non Verbal CAT score but lower average
• NACE Element 5

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What is Learning?

• The mind is a fire to be kindled not a vessel to
  be filled
• (Plutarch)

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Beyond the comfort zone

• Stimulating questioning
• Challenging tasks
• An element of risk
• Opportunity to question accepted theory
• A chance to break the rules.
• Exposure to experts

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Features of Effective Classroom Practice

• Higher order thinking skills
• Development of expertise
• Exploration of alternative views
• Questioning that encourages creativity
• Problem solving and enquiry
• Connection of learning the big picture
• Independent learning

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Planning Lesson Objectives for Gifted Learners

• Add breadth enrichment through a broader range
  of texts and tasks
• Give depth extension through more detail and
  complexity
• Accelerate the pace of learning tackling
  objectives earlier
• Promote independence
• Support reflection and self-evaluation

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Structuring Challenging Tasks

• Use an alternative text or stimulus
• Allow pupils to jump steps
• Create open ended tasks that enable unusual
  responses
• Set extended, independent projects
• Encourage research and experiment
• Restrict time or word limit
• Blooms Taxonomy higher order skills

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More Challenge not More Work!

• Avoid
• Repetitive extension work
• Time filling activities
• Additional writing
• Helping others when task completed
• Starting points that provide no challenge

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What is Good Teaching?

• Effective planning
• Differentiated teaching strategies
• Command of subject
• A good learning environment
• Challenge and pace
• Use of teaching assistants
• Constructive assessment of work
• NACE Element 4

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What is Good Learning?

• Consider
• Pupils acquisition of knowledge and skill
• Pupils engagement and application
• Pupils concentration and productivity
• Independent and collaborative work
• Reflection on learning
• Self assessment and target setting
• NACE Element 4

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BLOOMS TAXONOMY

• Knowledge Remember Tell List Recite Memorise
• Comprehension Give examples Select Explain
• Application Use Make Map Demonstrate Construct
• Analysis Classify Break into components Solve
• Synthesis Rearrange Forecast Create Compose
• Evaluation Judge Give opinion Prioritise
  Criticise

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Original Terms New Terms

• Evaluation
• Synthesis
• Analysis
• Application
• Comprehension
• Knowledge

Creating Evaluating Analysing Applying Understandi
ng Remembering
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Blooms Revised Taxonomy

• This can be broken down into three areas for
  curriculum planning.
• MUST Remembering Understanding
• SHOULD Applying Analysing
• COULD Evaluating Creating

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Designing Challenging Tasks

• Giving a more able student the same level of work
  throughout the lesson will not stretch them.
• Practical suggesitions for differentiation

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Differentiation by Task- practical suggestions

• Use an able pupil to recap on last lessons
  learning for other pupils
• Many starter activities ask for students to come
  up with a number of examples. A more able student
  could be given a higher target.
• Start pupils at an appropriate level of
  difficulty on tasks- allow them to decide Try
  starting at qu.5, if thats to easy try going to
  qu. 10.
• If taking feedback in lesson enlist an able
  student to write ideas up on the board.
• Ask able pupils to model their writing/thinking
  by explaining their answer/solution to a task to
  a neighbour

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Differentiation by Task practical suggestions

• Use GT pupils to provide the plenary. Alert them
  at the start of the lesson to be ready to present
  their learning at the end.
• Ask GT pupils to come up with questions to ask
  during the plenary to test the other students
  understanding.
• Use higher level questioning and direct questions
  at particular pupils rather than waiting for the
  hands up approach.
• Be ready to probe beyond the first question in
  order to make them really think Why do you
  think that? How did you come to that
  conclusion?.

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Differentiation by resource- practical suggestions

• Provide dictionaries and ask GT pupils to look
  up and explain definitions of key words or
  technical vocabulary used throughout the lesson.
• Use unedited or full length versions of abridged
  texts you are using with the rest of the class.
• Ask the school librarian to produce a reading
  list of texts and electronic resources to
  encourage wider reading or research around a
  class topic.
• Use a wide variety of texts and resources.

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Using homework to encourage independent learning

• Homework is an invaluable way of encouraging all
  students to enrich and extend their learning
  independently.
• Give students tasks which will grab their
  interest and be a challenge
• Ideally tasks should allow students to conduct
  research, decide upon their own views and present
  their findings in a way that they have chosen.

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Some examples of challenging homework tasks

• A homework given to KS3 science students to be
  completed over a 3 week period independently
• The statements below have been written in
  textbooks. Read them and use research of your own
  to decide if they are correct. Explain what your
  views are.
• The largest animals are usually herbivores
• Eating white bread and cereals causes acne
• All food chains get their energy from the sun.
• Half termly questions given to students to
  research and present findings in a way of their
  choice poster/ leaflet/ presentation/ short
  documentary
• Could we survive on mars?
• Will robots take over from humans?

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Using ICT in the classroom- a way of tackling
underachievement?

• Set a homework assignment for students to produce
  a starter activity for the IWB- can be brought in
  on a memory stick and uploaded at start.
• AFL- peer assessment- photograph students work
  during lesson and project onto board. Students
  can edit on the screen and discuss how to
  improve.
• Editing/reviewing work. Use Word to produce a
  good, not excellent, response to a question.
  Allow students to move text around on screen/ add
  additional phrases etc.
• Tutor group timewww.agameaday.com
  www.wordplays.com www.dailysudoku.co.uk

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ICT for independent learning

• VLEs- virtual learning environments
• Have more challenging and stretching background
  reading/ research material/ alternative tasks.
• Upload examples of high quality work- modelling.
• Allows able pupils to look ahead at the
  curriculum pages of older students.

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The importance of variety
'Hes asking a lot of questions. Ive got some
questions of my own...'
"All we do here is listen and answer questions.
How about doing something or discussing something
for a change?'
'I know what I know, why bother asking me again?'
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Question Look at it from the pupils point of
view. These gifted and talented pupils seem bored
and frustrated by a lack of variety. What could
the teacher do?

• Change the type of questions asked
• Encourage the pupils to think for themselves
• Encourage the pupils to ask questions themselves
• Provide more opportunities for discussion

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WHY?

• It is important that gifted and talented pupils
  are encouraged to think independently and to
  inquire into their preferred area of expertise.
  To fulfil the potential of gifted and talented
  pupils to think independently, you need to
  provide the opportunity, support and time to
  engage in independent thinking.

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How?

• Gifted and talented pupils often express
  frustration at being required to work through
  repetitious questions. Most gifted and talented
  learners need less time to review and consolidate
  their learning, they want to move onto using
  their newly acquired knowledge to create new
  ideas or connect with other previously learned
  ideas.

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Variety example

• A science teacher has explained about sound and
  how the vibrations move through air. She then
  shows a guitar. Whats an example of a question
  that could stimulate higher order thinking in
  this situation?
• How does the guitar make a noise?
• How does the sound get to your ear?
• What must happen for you to hear a note from this
  guitar?

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Actually, the first two are examples of recall
and knowledge based questions. On their own, they
dont stimulate higher order thinking.

• However, asking what must happen to hear a note
  signals that there are ideas to think about and
  put together before offering an answer. It
  requires analysis and synthesis of previously
  learned knowledge in order to apply it to a new
  situation, making it a good example of a question
  that stimulates higher order thinking.
• Even so, pupils will only use higher order
  thinking if they are used to being expected to do
  so and they are given sufficient time before an
  answer is expected. Questioning

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• Encouraging and supporting pupils in asking their
  own questions
• Question How long is 0.9 seconds?
• Thats how long.
• So what? Well, thats how long teachers typically
  leave after asking a question before they expect
  an answer or answer it themselves. Thats barely
  enough time to react never mind think about it.
  
• Question What would happen if you left a little
  more time, like 3-5 seconds?
• You give the pupil time to reflect, synthesise,
  evaluate and provide more thoughtful answers.
• Question What if you allow people to ask their
  own questions? Think about it for a moment...
• Pupils who ask questions learn much faster than
  those who simply answer them. Gifted and talented
  pupils are able to take an overview of the topic
  and to look for subtleties and connections to
  other knowledge.

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Variety Asking their own questions two examples

• The students were reaching the end of a topic and
  their history teacher wanted to know whether they
  had fully understood all aspects of the topic and
  which aspects they had found difficult. She asked
  her pupils to work in groups of four to write
  five questions. One on an easy part of the topic,
  one on a hard part of the topic, and three on an
  interesting part of the topic.
• Once the questions had been written they were
  passed on to another group. The group had to try
  and identify which question fell into each
  category. The students then picked which question
  they felt was best.
• Each of the best questions was read out to the
  class. Often these best questions were on a
  difficult part of the syllabus. The teacher
  collected up all the questions and constructed an
  assessment activity out of them so that her
  pupils could be challenged to show what they
  really understood and could do.

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• Why use peer- and self-assessment with gifted and
  talented pupils?
• 1. Using peer- and self-assessment enables gifted
  and talented pupils to learn how to create,
  understand and apply assessment criteria and
  understand the quality of outcome that they could
  achieve.
• 2. Peer- and self-assessment supports gifted and
  talented pupils in exploring what constitutes a
  high-quality outcome, and coming to know how to
  direct their efforts and abilities to produce
  high-quality outcomes themselves.
• 3. Peer- and self-assessment encourages gifted
  and talented learners to develop the skills they
  need to become independent autonomous learners.

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• Exemplars may be
• a response produced by a pupil in previous years
• an answer provided by the exam board
• a poster on a different subject that is already
  on the wall
• a piece written by the teacher to show the
  desirable qualities
• a manufactured item
• a jointly constructed response using the best
  bits from several people's work.

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Challenge all Learners

• A rising tide lifts all ships
• Joseph Renzulli